chapter 16
Thursday night, Selene was in her guest room at Hugh and Lucy’s house. She was studying on the bed, her history books strewn about, as Ramsey sat in a chair quizzing her on dates and names and events. Selene liked the red-haired firestarter. He was a bit intense, but she kind of liked that about him. Plus, being so serious meant she didn’t have to try to lighten up around him.
They’d stalled in their studying and were debating what it would’ve been like to be a human trying to protect a family during the plague or the Great Depression.
“So you’re telling me that you would steal?” Selene asked.
“To save my family, yes… There is nothing I wouldn’t do,” Ramsey replied and clasped his hands behind his head.
“What if you got caught? Then you wouldn’t be there to provide for them.”
“If my choice were between my family definitely dying because they had no food or possibly dying if I got caught, I’d take my chances.”
“I think that if the time actually came, you’d find decisions like that to be harder than you imagine,” Selene said.
“Oh, I don’t think they’d be easy. I’m just saying that my family comes first.” He paused a beat. “Did you know that I left my original family?”
Selene tapped her pencil on her notebook. “No. I’m still learning all your backgrounds. Except Ellie and Griffin, of course. I know all about them.” She tilted her head to him. “What happened?”
A small bitter grimace twisted his mouth. “You have to ask? I’m a firestarter.”
“But you have so much control over it,” she observed.
Ramsey leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees, his bottle-green eyes serious. “That’s only recently. And with a lot of help from Ellie and Lila.”
“Who’d you inherit your gift from?”
“Through my mother’s side. But it skipped her generation. I think she assumed it would skip us as well. I was only six when things started happening.”
“Stuff would suddenly go up in flames when you were around?”
He nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Yeah. Luckily, we lived on the frontier. We were pretty isolated, so it was fairly easy to hide. When I was eight, my mother explained to me what was going on. Although she didn’t tell me everything at the time.”
“What happened?”
Ramsey’s mouth compressed and shadows filled his eyes. Selene reached forward to lay her hand over his. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Ramsey cleared his throat. “Two things happened around the same time. First, when I was ten, my mom discovered she was going to have a baby. And then I discovered my grandfather’s diary. It was through him that I’d inherited my power. And it turned out that he killed my grandmother. By accident, of course. He just couldn’t control his power and it got away from him.”
“I’m so sorry,” Selene murmured.
Ramsey frowned and nodded. “Thanks. Anyway,I knew I had to protect my family from that, especially—my new baby brother or sister—I had to protect them from me. So I left.”
“When you were only ten?!”
Ramsey gave her a pointed look. “You were only ten when your brother turned your world upside down. And he was only ten when he became King of the Vyusher. I did okay.”
Selene pictured how Ramsey’s life must’ve been. At least she’d had food and a roof over her head. Ramsey had not only had to fend for himself but wrestle with a power that was usually a death sentence. It was a miracle he’d survived at all.
“When did Lucy find you?”
“Ha. You’ve heard of that little trick of hers, huh?” Ramsey chuckled.
Selene smiled. “She’s used it on me, actually.”
He shook his head, his eyes lighting up fondly. “She didn’t find me until 1952. I’d been on my own for close to seventy years at that point. But if Ellie hadn’t come along, I would’ve had to leave them, too.”
“Hey! I heard my name. Not speaking ill of me I hope,” Ellie said as she walked into Selene’s room.
She was soon followed by Lila, who saw Ramsey’s and Selene’s clasped hands. She hid her expression quickly, but Selene still caught the sadness that flashed through her eyes.
“Never,” Selene answered Ellie as she sat back. “We wouldn’t dare. That dragon trick is just too intimidating.”
“Wait a minute…” Ellie held up a hand to Selene’s forehead. “Was that humor? Are you sure you feel all right?”
Selene grinned, her adorable dimples making a rare appearance. “I feel fine.”
“Great! Then you have no excuse. We’re going dancing tonight!” Ellie matched Selene’s smile with one of her own.
“No way! Count me out.” Selene held her hands up in front of her.
“Oh, come on, Selene,” Lila implored, hopping on the bed beside her. “It’ll be really fun. Even Ramsey’ll go.”
“Hey, Lily. I think I can speak for myself,” Ramsey replied, and she wrinkled her nose at him.
Selene gave Lila silent props. From watching Lila interact with Ramsey, no one would ever guess that she was in love with him.
“I’m really not in the mood for dancing tonight,” Selene insisted. “And I’m studying for finals.”
“Well, I’m afraid you don’t have a choice,” Ellie retorted with a mischievous grin.
Selene raised an eyebrow. “How’s that?”
“You know, since you’ve been around the family, I believe your true personality has really been coming out. You’re not as quiet as you’d have people believe.”
Selene merely shrugged. “I thought I’d explained that side of me was learned. Nurture versus nature so to speak.”
“Well, I like this sassy side of you,” Ellie declared.
“Hmmm… jury is still out for me,” Selene replied. “And I’m guessing that after our last meeting, your brother definitely isn’t so fond of it.” She looked down and absently flipped the pages of her notebook.
“You might find that Griffin isn’t as upset as you think,” Ellie said. “Anyway, Lucy, Hugh, Charlotte, and Dexter are all going out to dinner tonight. And the rest of us are going dancing. You can’t be on your own. So you’re going dancing.”
“I’ve seen what girls wear when they go out to the clubs,” Selene said. “I don’t have anything suitable.”
“You and I are about the same size,” Ellie answered immediately. “So that excuse won’t work, either.”
Adelaide appeared in the doorway. “As far as I can tell, you’ve done nothing but study since you came here. It’s time you had a little fun in your life.”
“Yeah,” Nate added as he snuggled his arm around Adelaide’s waist. “You deserve to boogie.” He dramatically shook his rear around, and everyone chuckled.
“Okay….” Selene threw up her hands. “I surrender. Dress me up, slap some makeup on me, and let’s get this party started.”